Season 1

Andrew Graham-Dixon takes a look at the many ways in which drawing has connected us with the natural world and also how it has helped advance scientific enquiry, from the Italian Renaissance right through to today. In this first edition, he meets a surgeon whose study of Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings of the heart has led him to develop a radical new form of cardiac operation, uncovers a remarkable 200 year-old series of drawings of the moon, and encounters some of the actual preserved birds drawn by the great American ornithologist John James Audubon.

Andrew Graham-Dixon examines the variety of ways in which drawing has been used throughout the centuries to tell narrative stories, many of them dark or satirical, from animation to Japanese manga books. Political cartoonist Martin Rowson explains how his savage commentaries on contemporary politicians are influenced by 19th century masters Hogarth and Gillray, and in a rare interview the American comic strip artist Daniel Clowes talks about what inspired his celebrated graphic novel Ghost World.

Andrew Graham-Dixon examines the variety of ways in which drawing intimately expresses the creative mind, from the very beginnings of art, the drawings on the ceiling of the Altamira caves in Spain, to the remarkable works made by autistic twins William and Richard Tyler. He also visits one of the rarest masterpieces of the Renaissance, a vast series of pictures uncovered as a result of World War II bombing in Pisa and shows how Picasso influenced a whole generation of artists.

Andrew Graham-Dixon presents a series on the history of drawing. He examines how drawing has been used by designers throughout the centuries as a means of expressing their ideas. In Las Vegas he meets Mark Fisher, creator of stage sets for Pink Floyd and U2, as he constructs a magical set for theatre company Cirque de Soleil. He also traces the line of architectural design from Brunelleschi to the 60s British group Archigram, who famously never built anything dreamt up in their wild drawings.